Chapter One
All was quiet in my bedroom. The savages—also known as children—were downstairs, eating breakfast with their fathers and my other husbands to give Re and me a little more time alone.
Naked, I snuggled in against a happy sun god and lifted my face for a morning kiss. Behind the low headboard was a picture window with a view of the immortal butterfly garden, but tropical plants, including bird of paradise, anthuriums, and white ginger, blocked most of it, letting in only a few stray sunbeams and a glimpse of the trees that bordered the path to the central clearing. Most of the bedroom light entered via the balcony, across the room from us. Out there, the view would be one of African-inspired grasslands with sparse trees and a lake with a Viking longship floating in it. The life of a goddess was strange and fabulous.
When I drew back from our kiss, I sighed. Couldn't be helped. The Sun God Re bathed in sunlight, was a wondrous thing to behold. His divine glory was the stuff of fantasy. Literally. I had to give the Egyptians all the credit for Re's mouth-watering appeal. They had dreamed up everything from his gold-touched hair to the polished nails on his toes.
I owed them a great debt.
Re had taken the Egyptians' gift and gleefully added his own touches to it—innate sensuality, charisma, and an endearing sense of humor. It turned him from your average sun deity into a sex god. One heavy-lashed look from the Sun God could melt the panties off the iciest Karen (or Kevin) in the world. His deep-toned, Egyptian skin shimmered as if dusted in gold, which gave him the illusion of a fairer complexion. He wasn't dusted with anything. It was all him. The sheen matched his golden bedroom eyes and the highlights in his dark, shoulder-length hair. His features were regal, but his full lips gave them a more sensual feel. Then there was his lean, muscular body, and the way he moved spoke of his talents in the bedroom.
“Good morning.” Re eased out of my arms. “I'll be right back. Don't leave that bed.”
“Okay.” I ogled him as he walked into the bathroom naked, his entire body shining in the sunlight.
All of my seven husbands were extremely handsome (I was very lucky), but Re was the most otherworldly of them all. He even beat Arach, with his crimson hair and dragon scales at his temples. Then again, maybe it was a tie.
With a sigh, I pushed back the covers and stretched—arms going up and out and toes reaching for the foot of the bed. I was looking forward to another lazy day of enjoying Pride Territory with my children, husbands, and lions. No god drama or any sign of the trickster. It had been nearly a year since the trickster revealed themselves. Or rather, revealed who they'd been pretending to be.
“Poor Ty,” I whispered.
Trevor's brother had unknowingly dated the trickster, who turned out to be the first non-binary god (their words). They had been posing as a woman to seduce Ty, but could take on any appearance they wished—male or female. Loki could do that too, but he identified as male, whereas the trickster couldn't decide. When the trickster revealed themselves and fled, Ty was left reeling and heartbroken. The trickster later told me, through a letter, that they loved Ty. Falling in love with him hadn't been on their agenda, but their feelings for him were real. Not that it helped Ty. The result remained unchanged—he had fallen in love with an illusion. The trickster had been pretending to be a rain goddess. So, we still didn't know their name.
And neither did Ty. That had to hurt.+
We weren't sure if the trickster was good, evil, or neutral chaotic, to borrow some Dungeons and Dragons terms. They swore they were helping us and humanity, and their games usually ended well for us. Their last game had led to the creation of an item that brought Azrael out of stasis. Az had formed a trinity of death gods with Kirill and Odin, using me as a linchpin. Kirill and Odin had trained together, but Azrael had been busy with his Faerie God duties. Despite his lack of training, he gave his new trinity-bond a try when we were fighting Amisk, a Beaver God who was now our friend. The magic had backfired since Az was only with Kirill at the time. They needed Odin to use the bond properly. Kirill, since he had practiced with Odin, knew how to maneuver out of an unbalanced bond. Az did not. The resulting backlash had put him into a type of magical coma that no one could bring him out of. Not until the trickster gave me a tool built of god relics to use.
You may wonder how a game could lead to the creation of that tool. Well, that's the truly mind-bending part. Therewas no way the trickster could know that Az would make that mistake. And yet, they had stolen the god relics needed to make the tool long before Azrael's accident. I assumed the trickster was psychic. We thought it was a good lead to discovering their identity. But we had gone through all the gods who could shapeshift as they didandsee the future, and none was the trickster. In the end, we concluded we weren't dealing with one trickster but a pair of them. The shapeshifter was the front- person, the one who interacted with us, but they had to be working with a seer. There was no other way for them to know about Az.
There were so many unanswered questions regarding the trickster. But the main one plaguing me was: if the trickster hadn't played their game with us, would Az have made the same mistake, just at another time, when the trickster wouldn't have been able to save him? Because I could very well say that the trickster started the events that led to Azrael using the magic improperly. But maybe that was necessary. If Az had done the same thing in another battle, none of us would have thought to unite god items with the fey magic condenser and use it to summon Azrael out of stasis. Only the trickster knew to do that. So maybe they had manipulated us into a battle specifically to bring about that dangerous situation because they were the only one who could save Azrael.
Yes, it was a mind-boggling question. Judging by what the trickster had done before, I leaned toward their interfering to help. But if that were the case, why did the trickster run? They could have easily explained themselves and earned acceptance. Instead, they fled. That didn't sit well with me.
My family and I had been tense for months, waiting for the trickster to return. We didn't know what their game wouldbe, but we were pretty sure they'd start a new one. Odin had even been wearing the magic condenser on a leather cord around his neck to prevent the trickster from stealing it again. The condenser unites god magic and was integral to joining all of those stolen god relics into the tool that saved Azrael. It was also how the trickster stole Katilla's magic and all the power of the Yamadutas of Naraka. Gods could unite their power through the condenser, but if one of them died, their power went to the one who lived. Katilla died, and the trickster got his magic. Now, I believe the trickster orchestrated everything, including Katilla's death. So, you can see why we're unsure if they're good or evil. I think he's more neutral-chaotic. The trickster seems to love chaos.
But, as I said, life had been smooth for nearly a year now. No chaos. No trickster. Odin had even stopped wearing the magic condenser. To be fair, the thing was a large crystal shard and not the most comfortable to wear around your neck.
“Now that's exactly what I wanted to return to.” Re crawled back onto the bed and between my legs.
With his talented fingers, he brought me fully awake, but his mouth on my breast pulled me back down into a sexual lethargy. Hands in his silky hair, I held Re to me and just relaxed into the pleasure he offered. My legs spread wider to accommodate him, and as he settled against me, he kissed his way up to my mouth. As we kissed, Re reminded me he was the most experienced of my men, preparing me so thoroughly with his fingers that when he replaced them with his shaft, he entered to the hilt with a single thrust.
Re started slowly, grinding into me until I forgot that anyone or anything else existed. With his body pressed to mine and his hips moving in that steady, mind-blowing motion, Re'smagic rose inside him and set his skin to glowing as if he had swallowed the sun. His sun summoned my moon, and it filled my skin with moonlight. The merging of our bodies and light brought us up the crest of pleasure. But Re pulled us back and, panting, held us on the precipice. When rapture withdrew, he began again, shoving me up that incline with every thrust. Over and over, he took us near the crest only to let us fall, each new climb increasing our pleasure until he brought us over the apex at last. Light bursting around us, we clung to each other as we burst apart.
Breathing hard, Re slid down to lay his head on my breasts. I stroked his back, still shivering from my orgasm. I enjoyed having more than one husband in my bed at a time, but I preferred connecting with them one-on-one. It felt more intimate. We could be ourselves without worrying about another person. And Re was the only one who would lie upon me afterward, giving me his full weight. I loved that, but my other husbands were too afraid of crushing me. Re wasn't as big as them, but it was more that he knew exactly what I could handle and what I enjoyed. His perceptive insight was part of what made him a phenomenal lover.
Re lifted his face to kiss me. Just then, the suite door burst open, and Trevor came into the room.
“Do you mind?” Re growled. “We may have come, but we're not done yet.”
“Sorry.” Trevor rushed over. “Ty hasn't shown up at work. I'm going to Moonshine to look for a trail.”
“What?” I tried to slide out from under Re.
“No!” Re held me where I was. “This is my time with you. You're not going anywhere.”
“It's Ty, Re, and it's the morning. Technically, your night is over.” I pushed at him until he rolled off of me with a mutter about the irrelevance of time. “What if the trickster came back for him?”
“Or what if he's done something to himself?” Trevor whispered.
